News

New Haven Teachers Ratify New Contract, Ending 14-Day Strike

Mon, 06/10/2019

New Haven Unified teachers returned to classrooms Monday just in time for the last week of school. After a 14-day strike, the teachers union ratified an agreement with the school district Sunday night. The vote to accept it was split with 60% approval, 302 to 200.

“The agreement gives members a 4 percent on-schedule pay increase over the 2018-19 and 2019-20 school years, plus a 2.5 percent one-time bonus for this school year,” CBS San San Francisco reports. “The agreement also will give teachers up to a 1 percent additional on-schedule additional pay increase next year should the school district’s revenues come in higher than projected. In addition, the agreement lets retiring teachers earn a complete year of service credit for this 2018-19 school year.”

“The strike brought us together and made us stronger as a union to fight for our students, connected us with parents in a way we have never seen before in Union City,” Ku’e Angeles said.

While an agreement has been reached, he made it clear that the scars left by the contentious negotiating process won’t be going away any time soon.

“New Haven educators are angry and feel betrayed by NHUSD administrators, especially by our retiring superintendent. Educators feel like district managers are profiting off of teachers and this strike. And once again, teachers feel they are helping district managers fix their financial problems.”

“Both teams put in almost 200 hours at the bargaining table during the strike to reach an agreement. We are thrilled that our teachers will be back with their students where they, the community, and the District want them to be,” the district said in a statement.